Journey to Southern Thailand and Burma (1912) - by Pierre Lefèvre-Pontalis (Paperback)

Book Synopsis

Published here for the first time are the journals of Pierre Lefèvre-Pontalis, explorer, Oriental scholar, and diplomat, offering a unique window into the colonial mindset of the late 19th and early 20th century.

Explorer, Oriental scholar and diplomat, Pierre Lefèvre-Pontalis (1864-1938) was a member of Pavie Mission to Laos in the 1890s, participating in drawing up the borders between French Indochina and independent Siam, as well as the French territories and Burma, annexed by the British in 1886. He was later appointed as Minister Plenipotentiary to Siam. However, before taking up this ambassadorial role he journeyed in Siam and Burma in 1912, during which he wrote copious notes recording ethnographic, historical and geopolitical thoughts. This is the first time these journals have been published and provides a unique window into the colonial mindset of the time.

About the Author

Pierre Lefèvre-Pontalis was an explorer and diplomat and his journey to southern Thailand and Burma in 1912 gave a unique insight into the colonial mindset of the time. Olivier Évrard is an ethnologist and research director at the Institut de Recherche pour le Développement (IRD), assigned to the PALOC joint research unit (IRD-MNHN-CNRS). He is also an associate researcher at the Southeast Asia Center of the EHESS in Paris and at the Faculty of Social Sciences of Chiang Mai University. He works mainly on the history of interethnic relations in Thailand and Laos, countries in which he has carried out extensive field research. Aurore Candier is a historian, director of the Center for Burmese Studies, and a lecturer in the Department of History at Northern Illinois University at Delkalb, USA. She has conducted research in Burma for more than twenty years in the fields of conceptual, political and cultural history.